supercharged 5.0 true fire 98 explorer sport

hi everyone, my name is tim . i live in selkirk, manitoba, canada and as if this date that i am posting this, i am 36 years old.

i bought my sport in jan 05 from a local ford dealer. it had 111,000KM's on it. this is the second sport i have owned. it was sitting on the lot for about 8 months before i came along. i am the third owner (i was able to track down the person that traded it in, and they got it from a friend, who bought it new in 98).

i started to do a few things to it after i first got it, then i found this site, and all hell broke lose! i've never been satisfied with something the everyone else has, so i started to tinker with it even more.

mods include

interior

installed factory tilt, cruise, overhead console, auto dimming mirror, full length console, with a message center (it didn't have these from factory).

white face with blue flames indigo gauge covers (they light up blue)
blue l.e.d. everything
white l.e.d. interior lights
Kenwood DDX392 Touch Screen Head Unit
alpine 4 channel amp (all four speakers)
boston acoustic front and rear speakers
alpine mono amp (for sub)
2 12 inch jl audio subs
rockford fosgate cap
passenger side one touch window down mod.
custom transfer case shifter
tripple a pillar gauge pod, housing autometer boost, Innovate LC-1 wideband, and oil pressure gauge
12v power inverter with 120v plug in a 2 usb plugs built into the center console

exterior

BMW E46 projectors, mounted into stock housings using clear lens
6000K HID head lights
angel eye "driving" lights, with 8000k h.i.d.'s
clear parking/corner lights
billet grill (powder coated by Turdle)
blacked out ford emblems
custom front steel 95-98 bumper, with 4 inch round tubes welded in for driving lights
shaved radio antenna
shaved roof rack
black euro tall lights
l.e.d. license plate lights
smoked out 3rd break light
lund rear tailgate spoiler/wing (formally from the truck "blackjack" owned by EF member Spas)
hand made roll pan (made from 3 1/2 rear bumpers, with 1/4 inch diamond plate on the top, and it is removable)
aluminum T/A differential griddle/cover (powder coated by Turdle)
Motegi Mr107 20' rims
goodyear wrangler hp p245/50 r20
1 1/4 wheel spacer in the rear, 3/8 in front
and most noticeable, black with blue pearl paint, and blue true fire (ground effects are black with blue pearl as well)

Suspension

2 inch lowering blocks in the rear, reverse TT in the front (2 inch as well)
Explorer Express rear sway bar
4 door leaf springs
rancho rs9000 adjustable rear shocks
03-05 sport trac spindles with drilled and slotted rotors

performance

5L swap
347 stroker
TFS twisted wedge alum heads
comp gold 1.6 rockers
comp cams CCA-35-556-8 nitro cam
heavily modified edelbrock victor jr air gap intake (which serves as a valley pan now)
eaton m122 supercharger (metco 2.70 pulley, and ASP 8 rib 7 1/4 crank pulley) with custom made mount with bell intercooler core
8 rib serpentine belt conversion using pulleys from a 7.3 powerstroke
custom made 3 1/2 inch throttle body elbow
accufab 75mm throttle body
4 inch intake pipe
PMASS MH90 90mm Universal 3000 KG/HR MAF
amsoil cone filter
F.A.S.T. 60lb injectors
edelbrock fuel rails, trick flow specialties fuel pressure regulator with summit racing fuel pressure gauge
walbro 255lph fuel pump
1/2 inch steel braided fuel pressure line from tank to rail using 8AN fittings
torque monster headers
2 1/2 duel pipes with flowpro duel in and out 2 1/2 single muffler
accel extreme 9000 ceramic 45 degree plug wires with boot protectors
4R70W w/2600 stall with J mod
tuff stuff 200a alternator
tuning made possible with sct pro-racer package, and tuned with major help from member [MENTION=102869]Dono[/MENTION] and [MENTION=81804]4pointslow[/MENTION]
flex a lite duel 12 inch electric fans
big 3 upgrade (4 gauge wires)
meziere innercooler water pump
2 froozenboost innercooler rads

Transfer case

4406 manual shift from a 97 F150
modified stock trans cross member to accept 93 mustang 5L polyurethane tans mount
double cardan rear drive shaft

because of all the "fun" i had doing the bodywork, and some other things to my truck, i have nick named it "evil dora" or if you like, just plane "evil"!
and now the thank yous

my buddy gord leiss, who let this thing sit in his garage for 3 months while i did the body work to it. he also gave me a hand with some of the prep work, and painted it for me

kevin willson for doing the true fire http://affordableairbrushing.ca/

Joe Bukoski for letting me do the 5L/4406 swap in his garage

now people from this site, weather they knew it or not, they helped

BIG THANKS to tara a.k.a. explorersport77 for pictures of her truck. wouldn't been able to build the roll pan with out them!

ExplorerSport77's X "Hotness"

jon a.k.a. Turdle for selling me some real swanky rear shackles, as well as powder coating the diff cover and sending them up to canada. as well as much needed info on v8, and 4406 swaps as well as doing the grill and showing me how its done.

don aka dono for the help with the tuning, and wideband, as well as the supercharger

andy aka ahodges for some parts, and any help i needed for all the go faster goodies

5.0 swap - w/ 4406

jad2411 for finding me a link for my hidden antenna

ryan a.k.a. MustangP51 for doing his write up on making l.e.d.'s for interior lights, and how to make projectors

P51's HID Headlight (Projector) and Fog Conversion (PICS)

and N3ELZ cardomain page for L.E.D. switch and cruise pod mods

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/296394/2002-ford-ranger-regular-cab/page-6
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/296394/2002-ford-ranger-regular-cab/page-12
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/296394/2002-ford-ranger-regular-cab/page-23

bob a.k.a. rwenzing for showing me speedhut's sit for the gauges

Gauges, Custom Gauges, Tachometers, Speedometers, Shift Light, Pod

Buzz4x4 for his write up on blacking out ford emblems

How to Make Your Own Custom Ford Emblems

the late aldive for his write up on one touch down passengers window mod

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141027&highlight=touch+passengers+window+mod

BIG COUNTRY, for his write up on how to install a auto dimming mirror

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=84968

BIG COUNTRY, 98formulaLS1, and Ryon40 for there write ups on how to install a message center

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225017&highlight=BIG+COUNTRY
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80670&highlight=message+center
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=245085&highlight=Ryon40

MountaineerGreen for his 4406 swap write up and "Custom" Driveshaft for a 4406 and 4" Superlift on the Cheap " (even tho its lowered

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=166726&highlight=awd+4x4+swap
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=185232

Simon, aka blueka for his "pickle" thread, and help anytime i picked the phone up the phone on the 5L swap

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=271813

Jon, aka 4pointslow for any MAJOR technical advice i have needed

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219092

i wish i could find who did the write up on the overhead console install, but here is the link

http://www.explorer4x4.com/overhead.htm

Russ aka NICE59FORDF100 for his help on the wiring, and what to watch out for electronically.

hopefully one day, i will be able to help people on here just as much as the people that i have mentioned above!

plus you know you have done something right when.....

your truck (as well as corkey) wins truck of the month

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums//showthread.php?t=296023

is the feature truck on the fun hump day radio show (starts roughly around the 30 min mark)

http://explorerforum.podbean.com/2011/03/23/19-vroom-zoomboom/

and you drive 26 hours ONE WAY to the carlisle all ford nationals in june 2010 and 2011, and grab second place in the s.u.v. all category!

then in 2014 you go back to the same show you have been to 5 years in a row (nothing by most, but its one hell of a long drive) and take first!

 

[vroomzoomboom]

i need something better. every med-hard bump, it bottoms out.

 

[delexploder]

Are you running the coil over monroes? And dont feel bad my pass side dose the same thing when I hit a bump, mines just a bigger pain to fix cause its stainless

 

[vroomzoomboom]

i think right now its a domino effect. when i was under it, i can see a few marks on both pipes above the diff. but when the pipes make contact with the diff, it pushes the system upwards. when they put the tips on, they are around 1/2 inch away from the roll pan. so when the pipes go up, i believe they also come into contact with the pan (it looked like there are a few small scratches on the top of the tips.) the shop will probably end up cutting the pipe above the diff, and making a taller 90 above it. as i said though, i am not blaming them for crappy work what so ever. i just dont think i gave them enough time to do it all. that and the fact they were able to put a 2 1/2 system under it to me is a miracle in itself.

 

[delexploder]

Yea I know mines 2 1/2 the whole way

 

[ahodges]

Awesome. Looks like we will be having similar exhausts this year! I just got duals on mine yesterday. Mine isn't as loud now as it used to be. Once i get the tips on I'll take pics.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

yea, im on the fence with this muffler. one part of me likes it cause it sounds nuts at idle and has a nice little roar to it, but the other side i cant even hear the blower now, and with that once i put the new on one and have to have it retuned, i wont hear it ping either...

 

[ahodges]

Yeah I know the feeling. You want it to sound sweet and people to know that it isn't a grocery getter but it got to the point for me where it wasn't enjoyable to cruise in and I was baby footing it around every cop I saw. I put the largest dual in dual out straight through design muffler that Magnaflow makes. It is pretty quiet at idle but still hurts your ears if you stand by the exhaust when it is revved.

 

[delexploder]

I'm partial to magnaflow since that's what my exhaust is but I just think they sound a little less obnoxious than others

 

[4pointslow]

exhaust

I have JBA headers into stock cats/pipes(2 inch) then a flowmaster with 2 inlets(2 1/4-2 1/2?) and one three inch outlet. I plan to go with bigger pipes between headers and muffler and high flow cats. The flowmaster has a noticeable drone at cruising speeds. I also light foot it around the men with blue and red lights on their roofs. lol.
We should look to the manufacturers designs on the vehicles with higher horse powers that still have a quiet exhaust.

 

[CDW6212R]

Try a second muffler, then each one only sees half as much flow, and has an easier job of muffling it.

I haven't begun with mine yet, but I do like that Cherry Bomb makes mufflers that are just under 4" thickness. Stacked together they are not over 8" high. I plan to have them tack welded together as one piece, and they will not hang down visibly.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

been bouncing back and forth with this thing this weekend, and week. took it back to the shop that did the exhaust for me. they fixed the clearance problems for me, so thats all good. the sound part...well, it isnt as bad now. i can tell the pipes aren't pointed down to the ground as much as they were before, so that toned it down a tad. and when i say a tad, i mean a tad lol
i also jacked it up, and painted the underside. i even managed to break one of the foose caps as well, a WOW, those little *******s are expensive (ugh). i wanted to start cleaning it up for AFN, but was stopped dead in my tracks thanks to mother nature (who also loves to rain on us every may long weekend, or blesses us with crappy weather one way or anther).
i did go back to working on the new supercharger however. i figured out where the throttle body would go. i wanted to keep it in the stockish location, so i made a bracket, and bolted one end of the intake tube to it.





then that ended when i figured out the tube that i have here for the intake is to short now. i cut it to fit strait onto the blower, but didnt have a angle for it yet. when i placed it on, its to short, and nobody will be open tomorrow to get a new pipe, so back to the back burner it goes again. sucks to because i wanted to get that made and bring it with me to AFN as well, and show a few guys there what it looks like.

 

[delexploder]

Hey Tim does the hole in your rim for the cap go all the way through?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Hey Tim does the hole in your rim for the cap go all the way through?

yup

 

[delexploder]

This is how small AVM hubs are

 

[vroomzoomboom]

still to big

 

[vroomzoomboom]

next on my list o stuff to do was also done last night





i've had this track lock sitting on the bench for almost a year now, and its finally in the truck. rebuilt it with new clutch packs, new seals, and bearings. i had a friend do this one for me. i dont like doing diffs. we were surprised that all the old bearings looked like they were like new as well. so now thats done, i will have to take it for a ride and see how it is. streets were to wet, and it was a little late when we got done to stand on it anyplace last night. buddy even told me he could hear it down his block just idling away.

 

[ahodges]

squeeze it in before Carlise!

 

[Dono]

2 wheel burnouts!!!!

 

[4pointslow]

Rear

Nice upgrade! No more one wheel peels!
What gears are you running back there?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

andy, don, yup, yeep. already left a few j hooks on the highway
4point, i am just running the stock 4.10's. dont want to go any lower, or it wont be drivable on long trips......like the one in 2 weeks.
i have a new problem with it, that i have made a new thread on however

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=408473